Friday, 19 November 2010

Well earned City-break...

The Bull Ring

When I was young, okay, a lot younger, my Mam and Dad used to take my brother, sisters and me to see our relations over here in the UK. We took it in turns, sometimes I was lucky, other times not. But I always remember Birmingham and the Bullring. It was a kind of mecca for shopping and what a dump it was. But not anymore. Birmingham is a city that has totally changed, and speaking with my architecture hat one, it has changed is fantastic ways. We recently had an opportunity for a few days in this city. We visited the Motor Heritage Museum, Cadbury World (an absolute must!) and did a bit of shopping, well, Mrs H did the shopping, I did the photography.

Debenhams

What I particularly like about Birmingham the mix of 70's and contemporary design that is fused together in the city. I could walk around it for hours, and have done on many an occassion. You can see this around every corner.

Bridge over the Canals...

It is a great place for street photography. The people are friendly and warm. I feel at home there. If you haven't visited this wonderful city, then go and do so as soon as you get the chance.

Attraction.

Old and New

The double exposures are more or less straight out of the camera. I made a few tweaks in Lightroom; a touch of sharpening, slight de-saturation for an olde worlde feel and a nudge of clarity. the trick is to pre-visualize. I knew the shots I wanted to double expose before I left home.

If your camera has a double exposure feature try using it. Set it to two or more shots, if it has 'autogain' leave it at the 'on' position, this is probably the default setting anyway. All it does is divide the correct exposure for a given shot by the number of shots in the multiple exposure. In my case it was 2 shots, so the exposure for each was halved. Sounds complicated, but you can always check it out on the screen as you go and turn it off and compare. There is also the manual option as well, where you just work out the exposure for yourself. Don't worry too much about it; just have a go.

Noel's website

I have been taking photographs since my Dad lent me a camera for a school trip many many years ago. That sparked off a passion for photography that has grown ever since. I have been taking photographs of people and places for the last 30 years